I am not at liberty to divulge the exact ingredients of this traditional savory hash which has graced the table at one hundred Church Suppers over the past fifty years in the history of the First Parish Church in Taunton, Massachusetts. But the Ways and Means Committee of out Alliance will be happy to sell you, for the paltry sum of 10 cents, a card containing the secret, the recipe for the making of Unitarian Hash. Simply send your dimes to the Alliance Ways and Means Committee, First Parish Church, Taunton, Massachusetts.
 Mrs. Joel Metcalf's imported formula, successfully combining both science and mysticism, mystified me to the point where I investigated what possible connections this hash might have with our faith, Unitarianism.
 I asked myself, "Is it Unitarian merely because a prominent Unitarian of our past prepared it?" The answer echoed back within the chambers of my brain's frontal lobes, "No….look deeper." No would I say that its use within the Unitarian Church even for 164 years merits a proper claim to the Unitarian label.
 I proceeded to examine this recipe for hidden and veiled meanings. I am happy to report that I have found what I believe to be the recipe's message for Unitarian Churchmanship. With the use of allegorical decoding techinques I have brocen it down for your mental consumption.
 It says, as follows in the text which I closely guard, having taken the sacred Alliance oath, doubling binding upon the un-initiated men, that it be unveiled only for wider reaching Unitarian purposes such as the raising of money.
 "CUT UP BEEF AFTER IT IS THOROUGHLY COOKED."
 Observe the use of the word "cut up". Unitarians by and large are people who have voluntarily and conscientiously "cut up" by CUTTING THEMSELVES OFF from the other religious denominations. They have done this not for pride, malice or caprice but from a firm conviction that they had out grown the religious practices into which many of them were born without consent.
 Unitarians tend to be people who, after manifold baptismal experiences in life,
rather than by water, have reached certain conclusions of their own about God and Man.
Then it was that they "CUT OFF" their previous connections in favor of joining a church more consistent with the free unfettered conscience.
 Notice now how the allusion to "baptism by fire" fits here.
 Not only is the BEEF CUT Up but it is to be THOROUGHLY COOKED.
One can conclude that only by means of life's COOKING PROCESS, the very experience of growth, are green blades converted into whole wheat separated from the chaff and tares of outgrown theological preconceptions. Then it is, and then only, that truly religious experience becomes valid for the individual.
Now observe carefully. The recipe says, "BAKE THE PATATOES AND REMOVE AT ONCE FROM THE SKINS".  In other words, the Unitarian who does not know he is one until learning about our faith, must act. The time element is important for his conscience and his mind's sake. He ought immediately to remove himself from the empty skins of outgrowth and outworn creeds. He ought immediately to fill his life with a
renewed dynamic spirit of faith, leaving the old SKINS of formalism and creedalism behind him.
 The next instruction is, "DO NOT MASHBUT BREAK UP WITH A FORK".
 The Unitarian ought not to mash his old religion. He ought humbly and respectfully acknowledge that other religions too have an excuse for being, but as for him, he ought to rather PICK AS WITH A FORK that which is worth saving from that which must be discarded under the prompting of intellectual and spiritual honesty.
 Now, "WHEN THE POTATOES ARE HOT", suggesting the members of the Unitarian Church to which the novice comes, ….and only when the potatoes are hot, or ready to speak, "SHALL THE BUTTER BE MIXED IN"….and, as it states for emphasis,
"THROUGH ALL THE POTATOES".
 This new Unitarian can only be mixed into his newly found fellowship when the exsiting members of the Church are ready to receive him. That is to say, when the members welcome the newcomer. Then, and only then, will the BUTTER OIL of fellowship take effect. And only then will the new member become thoroughly MIXED IN AMONG ALL THE POPATOES.
 Then a definite command is issued through this recipe, for all the exclusive use of Unitarians, "COMBINE ALL INGREDENTS."
Here is a frank though veiled recognition that out free Churches consist of multiform ingredients of people, representing many seemingly divergent points of view united in unity of spirit or, so to speak, by BUTTER OILS.
 "COMBINE THESE", she says. Here is the genius of the Unitarian contribution to America's religious life. We believe in the fellowship of  "COMBINED, THOUGH
DIFFERENT, INGEREDIENTS.
 It is as Edward Markham so aptly put it, "He drew a circle and shut me out, heretic, rebel, a thing to flout; but love and I had the wit to win, we drew a circle and took him in."
 Now…and only now does the recipe reach toward its appetizing conclusion, "YOU POUR HEAVY CREAM OVER THE TOP".
 The cream is the reward, the result of true church fellowship.
 You can not pour this heavy cream over raw ingredients; not until every other step has been taken and every other condition of "ingredient fellowship" has been met with success.
 Denominational Yearbook statistics are the "cream" providing they represent "well prepared numbers".
 The allusion to the reward, the initiating of new Unitarians into our fellowship is herein represented by the allegorical allusion, "BAKE ONE HOUR AT 375 DEGREES". This strongly suggests that the entering Unitarian does not immediately achieve full standing, that there are many further steps to go as he grows, seeks, finds and revises his beliefs about God and Man, particularly about himself within the cosmos. He must become exposed, not to one degree of membership but to a full 375 degrees, an allusion to so long as he may live.
 At the bottom of the recipe in my hands are additional instructions, YOU CAN BREAK THIS DOWN TO THE DESIRED AMOUNT IF YOU HAVE LEFTOVER CORN BEEF. YOU CAN CHANGE THE AMOUNT OF POTATOES AND MILK BY THE AMOUNT OF MEAT YOU HAVE".
 When you are all through, then, "YOU MAY SALT AND PEPPER TO TAST".
 Here is a prophetic writing. Expand your Unitarian membership, but do it step by step; you must break down the recipe to the desired amount if the hungry shall be filled by effective fellowship and pastoral service.
 There is a gradualness about building a true Church fellowship, combining the various ingredients of human personality. Only when this is done can you metaphorically
SALT AND PEPPER TO TASTE".
 Obviously Mrs. Joel Metcalf, the Massachusetts promoter of this Vermont recipe,
Thought much like a Unitarian even about corn beef, potatoes and heavy cream. That was 53 years ago.
 What about today!
 Are we laboring to draw people today, whose present religious affiliations, inclusive of the "home Baptists", have become for them empty and inconsistent with either Reason or Conscience.
 Or are we apologetic? Do the believers in a "kingdom more worthy of the same God" evade their responsibility to shout it from the housetops? Are we reluctant, when someone shows signs of interest in our Church, to invite them to Church or to help them to become informed?
 Our form of "Unitarianism in hash or Churchmenship" is a successful blending of ingredients, each contributing to the final "Supper of the Lord".
 It is not enough that our Ministers represent us. Ours is a flavorful priesthood of all believers. Until each member of the First Parish Church accepts his calling, we shall have neither a sure fire recipe for a big Church supper nor a well filled Church of a well salted faith.
 Did not Jesus of Nazareth say, "Ye are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its saver it shall thence forth be good for nothing."
 Whether it be "Unitarian Hash" or "Unitarian Faith" it ought to, in the language of the modern commercial, "Taste better than butter. Try it and see".